From Running Counterclockwise (Aldrich Press, 2014).
Used with the author’s permission.

Alarie Tennille was born and raised in Portsmouth, Virginia. A Phi Beta Kappa, she graduated from the University of Virginia in the first class that admitted women. She met her husband, graphic artist Chris Purcell, in college and they now live in Kansas City, Missouri, where Alarie serves on the emeritus board of The Writers Place. Alarie believes her writing skills were born from her parents’ knack for storytelling–long, meandering tales she asked to hear again and again. “There was usually dance music in the back-ground,” she says, “the sounds of cicadas, and the clink of ice in glasses of sweet tea. Weekends brought rolling surf and laughing gulls, and the calliopes of amusement park rides.” Learn more about Alarie at www.alariepoet.com.

wyantjl42:
A little tour de force. The last line brings a slight touch of reality to the world of the poem that does not completely subdue its overall sense of exhilaration.Posted 05/19/2014 05:56 AM

Larry Schug:
Absolute killer last line!Posted 05/18/2014 12:39 PM

Cindy:
When we were kids we played a game called "Statue" and the person who was "it" would spin the other kids and they would freeze in the position they landed. It sounds goofy but we did it over and over. This poem reminds me of that.Posted 05/18/2014 08:33 AM